A New American Gothic

I have two nieces that live in Phoenix. I wish they lived closer. After bugging Bree for pictures of the girls for a month, she finally posted a stream of pictures taken consecutively trying to get a good one. Her plight was unsuccessful in her eyes, but not in mine. I am convinced she has haphazardly taken the best photo in history.

I'll now share it for your benefit.

Now, let's compare this picture to a famous American art piece.

Does anyone else see how amazing this is?

I love these girls.

Pin - interest Madness

For the first 4 or so months of joining pinterest, I called it pin-interest. It wasn't until one day, my sister-in-law said, "I love that you call it that." I had no idea what she was talking about, to which she replied, "I'm pretty sure it's pin-terest, not pin-interest." Immediately, I thought of all the people I had conversed with about the site, for months, and how no one mentioned I was pronouncing it wrong. Humiliation. At least I have Bree in my life.

Well, I've done a statistical analysis of the effects of pinterest on my well-being. The report is finalized. There is a high correlation between time spent on pinterest and weight gain. Now, some of you might be thinking, 'Yeah, but you're pregnant...that's why you're gaining weight.' To those I say, "Way to be critical thinkers, but even so, the data does not lie." Even factoring in the pregnancy, pinterest has caused weight gain above and beyond the acceptable amount according to the Body Mass Index for one Jackie Atkisson. (Well, I'm exaggerating, but I feel like it - blah).

It makes me hungry, ok? There are so many good recipes on there. I've gotten a few winners, and a few losers as well. But, I try to stay away from the dessert pins.

Not only is this website crammed with many great ideas. It also has some completely ridiculous/hilarious recipes. 

Let's take a look at a few.

This is brownie batter, poured over oreos, which are layered on cookie dough, which is then served with ice cream.

I'm a little disappointed in this recipe. I like to have peanut butter, cream cheese, and caramel, with my ice cream, brownies, cookie, and oreo bars. 

Here's another doosey:

Snickers, cheesecake, caramel cookie

Let me just run down the list of ingredients for these, ah hem, cookies. 2 cups chopped snickers bars, graham crackers, a butt-load of sugar, butter, 2 packages cream cheese, and Hersey's caramel topping. Pretty much any of those things on their own are delicious, so let's add them all together! And then be diagnosed with Diabetes!

I've seen a pin for Homemade Nutter Butter Bars. Only three ingredients! One of which is, yes, you have it, ACTUAL NUTTER BUTTER BARS. In my old lady English accent voice, "Let's make homemade nutter butter bars! First things first. Get in your car and drive to the store to buy Nabisco Nutter Butters. Then come home, crush them and add a bunch more calories. Bake them and wha-laa! Isn't homemade soooo much tastier than store bought? Quite so."

I have to make a dessert for our Ward Christmas party tomorrow. I think what I'll do is grab my mixing bowl. Throw in grandulated sugar, butter, caramel, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, peanut butter, powdered sugar, cream cheese, brownie batter, nutter butters, oreos, ice cream, hot fudge, whip cream, cherries, and some graham crackers. Mix it up good. Maybe throw in an egg to make it healthy. Bake and then Wha-La! Dessert!

Then of course I'll have to pin it, on pin-interest. 

Grandm...I mean, Nana B

My Mom, who recently changed her Grandma name from Grandma to Nana B, came out for Thanksgiving. I'm going to be completely honest here, I don't think there has ever or will ever be a better Grandma. She'll play with Maxine all...alllll.....alllllll day long. Anything Maxine wants to do, she's happy to do it. She'll swing her in a toy bucket, for.ev.er. She'll play hide and seek, for hours. She'll chase her, until both of them are exhausted. I've never seen anything like it. She genuinely loves to just play with Maxine.

Maxine doesn't know how good she has it. Or does she....

At the restaurant, when my mom left for the salad bar, Maxine frantically called for her.

When Nana B has to use the restroom, Maxine points at where she was, yells, and looks at me like, "How could you let her leave?" 

Maxine freely gives her hugs and kisses. 

She'll snuggle on her and hold her hand while she relaxes. 

So, I'm pretty sure the affection is mutual. We are sure lucky to have Nana B in our lives. Good thing she's headed out in February for the next little one. It's not good for anyone to go too far in between Nana B visits.

I hope I can be as great of a Grandma as Nana B is. Love you Mom.

Baking with Mom

I grew up baking cookies with my Dad. I'd sit on the counter and help him add the sugar, taste the dough, add the butter, taste the dough, add some chocolate chips, taste the dough. I was a super big help, obviously.

I cherish those memories of making cookies with my Dad. He was always so patient to let me help and make up jobs for me to do. I'm grateful for the memories he gave me by spending 20 minutes every now and then making cookies with me.

Today, I wanted some chocolate, well, everyday I do, so I decided to make brownies. As Maxine ran around my legs I thought, perhaps it's not too early to start this tradition with my own kids. I pulled her up on the counter and had her help me.

She helped tip the sugar measuring cup over. She helped get butter all over her pants. She held an egg for a moment before it was ready to be cracked. She helped almost grab a nearby knife. So, we have room for improvement, but all in all, it was a fun moment for her and I.

At the very end I gave her the spatula to lick. She'll probably be wanting to help me again.

Communication

I have loved Maxine since I found out I was pregnant. She's been the light of my life through all her stages.

With that said, I have been having so much fun with her lately! It is amazing how all of a sudden she can communicate with me. We can have little conversations, tease each other, even have little jokes. I love seeing her nod or shake her head at my questions, voicing her opinion. She's just so big now.

Seth watched her over lunch so I could go to the dentist and he asked before he left, "What should I make her for lunch?" I gave him a few ideas and then remembered, "You can just ask her what she wants." It's wonderful!!

I'm just starting to feel what it's like to have a daughter and not just a baby girl. And I love it!!!

Oh my little Maxine, you're growing so big.

Prayers are Answered

Last week was my first week of watching overlap of Flynn 4 months old and Will 6 weeks old, and of course my darling Maxine. Wednesday was the first day. Honestly, I couldn't sleep the night before.

'What if they are hungry at the same time?'

'What if one cries and wakes the other up?'

'What if Maxine freaks out about all these babies?'

'What if I lose my patience with Maxine because I'm stressed?'

Oh man, the list was endless. I had already prayed lots and lots for the babysitting to go well. I asked Seth to say a quick prayer for me for extra comfort around midnight. I fell asleep almost immediately after that prayer.

Wednesday morning, before Flynn arrived, Maxine and I said our breakfast prayer together. I asked the Lord for extra charity, patience, and kindness. I told him I was very worried and to help the babies be easily soothed today.

At 8 am Flynn arrived and it went well, like normal. We know him, he knows us, we have fun, we all love each other. It's not difficult with Flynn at all.

Will would come at 12:15. Flynn gets picked up at 4. Not a huge deal right? That's what I kept telling myself.

I really wanted Flynn to be asleep when my friend brought Will over. I knew she would be sad about leaving him for the first time, and I didn't want her to feel like she was leaving him at a daycare with 9 million babies. I prayed, this is dumb, I know, for Flynn to sleep when she brought him. Sure enough, he crashed at noon. Not only was he asleep when Will arrived, but he slept long enough for me to spend alone time with Will and Maxine.

Will ate, and slept. He hardly cried at all when I laid him down. Flynn woke up while Will was sleeping and ate. I played with Flynn. He took another small cat nap before he got picked up. Will woke up and ate. Flynn woke up and was picked up.

The whole time Maxine played with me. Or helped me with their binkies or handed me bottles. She was great.

When Will got picked up at 6:15 ish. I finally relaxed. We did it. I mean to say, the Lord, Maxine, and I did it.  We watched both babies, had patience, love, kindness, and gentleness. Really truly, I know it was because of all the prayers. Everything worked out perfectly. It is no coincidence they slept so well on different schedules, ate on different schedules, played well, cried minimally, etc.

The next two days went the same way. The babies were up more at the same time each day, but really only overlapping about 45 minutes total. Maxine continued to be my little helper and pal. I felt like her and I were in this together.

It's not like Seth got a job, or we won a bunch of money, or some other huge thing. It's all the little prayers that were answered that were weighing so heavy on my heart. It's the answers to those little prayers that build up my faith so I know that at some point Seth will get a job, for example.

Anyway, I guess this is just a testimony that prayers are answered. It doesn't mean it will go perfectly, but our worries are heard.

I can watch two babies at the same time. We will all survive.

Toddlers

Maxine is now 15 months old. She's smart as a whip, cute as a button, funny as a clown, and naughty as a toddler.

Nah, she really is a good girl, but some days are harder than others. Example, yesterday we had FHE at the Temple grounds. We first ate dinner in the large field. She kept going into the street and we'd tell her, "If you go in the street you have to sit in your car seat alone." She'd smile at us and then walking down into the street. We would go show her what is the street and what is the grass (she knows what grass is) and blah blah blah, you know the parenting lines, well she'd end up in her car seat. This happened three times. Stinker.

Anyone have a favorite parenting book on this stage of life? We need more tricks/strategies to add to our repartee.